


Died Last Night in My Dreams

by NightSkyWriter



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Book 2: Crooked Kingdom Spoilers, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I’ll add more tags later, My First Work in This Fandom, Spoilers for Crooked Kingdom, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22358743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightSkyWriter/pseuds/NightSkyWriter
Summary: **CROOKED KINGDOM SPOILERS**What if Matthias lived?
Relationships: Matthias Helvar & Inej Ghafa, Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	Died Last Night in My Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Work Title from “Ghost Town” by Adam Lambert

The Fjerdan would’ve been easy to find even without Inej’s directions.  
  
His body had been left on the blood-covered cobblestones. The warning of a plague had guaranteed no one would leave their homes much less go near a body.  
  
She knew she looked weird walking through the empty streets. But Death wasn’t a threat to her; she was a threat to death.  
  
Tasha walked closer and for the fourth time that night, considered just walking away. He was not only a Fjerdan; he was a Drüskelle. When she woke him up, he’d probably try to kill her.  
  
It wouldn’t stick but attempting to kill her would be rude. If he tried that, even Brekker couldn’t convince her to wake him up again.  
  
She sighed and knelt beside the body, placing on hand on his chest. Her eyes drifted shut and everything around her faded away. She focused until all that was left was the body of the man in front of her.  
  
_Wake up. _  
  
The order was simple, but the work behind it was anything but.  
  
She could still feel the remains of _him _. Whoever he’d been before he died.  
  
His memories flashed in her mind and she barely paid attention to them. She’d seen it so many times and knew they couldn’t make sense to her. She didn’t know the people in them or what was taking place.  
  
These had been his favorite memories and most of them involved a young girl with flaming red hair and bright eyes.  
  
Her powers clicked. Beneath her hand, the man gasped back to life.____

__

*** 

__

When the wolves welcomed Matthias home, he followed. Time didn’t pass, it didn’t exist. He and the wolves were there in the world of snow and ice, and yet he wasn’t cold. He wasn’t anything.  
  
The world was quiet. When he was younger, he’d appreciated how the snow swallowed all sound until nothing else mattered. Now it was too quiet. What had become his world wasn’t quiet. She was loud, fiery, beautiful and obnoxious. She was perfect.  
  
The wolves called to him, but they weren’t calling him home.  
  
She was home.  
  
Suddenly there was a new voice, louder than the wolves howls. The wolves called him in a request, an offer.  
  
This new person gave an order.  
  
_Wake up. _  
  
The world of ice and snow started to melt away and the wolves turned to smoke.  
  
***  
  
Matthias sat up with a gasp. Breathing wasn’t supposed to be painful but the air in his lungs burned like fire.  
  
“Nina,” he said but it sounded more like a wheeze. He glanced around him, but Nina wasn’t there. Instead a girl dressed in the typical barrel dark colors stood beside him. The look she gave him was disinterested but wary.  
  
“Welcome back,” she said, sounding anything but welcoming.  
  
“What did you do?” Matthias asked. He could feel the sticky blood on his clothes and remembered being shot. It wasn’t something easily forgotten. He was supposed to be dead.  
  
The girl shrugged. “I saved you. You’re welcome.”  
  
“Where is Nina?”  
  
Before the girl could reply another voice answered.  
  
“She’s with the others.” Inej said, stepping into his line of sight.  
  
Matthias nodded. Sounded right. He turned back to the girl.  
  
“Even Grisha can’t bring people back to life,” he said. “What are you? Are you on Parem?”  
  
She gave him a sour look. “Do I look like I’m on _Parem _?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “My abilities don’t exactly match the norm. Let's leave it at that.”  
  
“Why did you bring me back?”  
  
“Ask Brekker," she said, shrugging again. You have friends in high places, Fjerdan. Don’t die again. Even Brekker can’t convince me to save a witchhunter twice.”  
  
“Thank you, Tasha,” Inej said, glancing at her. “We’re even.”  
  
At that, the girl, Tasha, gave a sharp nod and walked away.  
  
As soon as Tasha was out of sight, Matthias relaxed slightly. Inej wasn't rushing him so he probably had a minute. He'd just been brought back from the dead. Even if they didn't have a minute to spare, he would have taken one.  
  
He could still hear the wolves. Their howls echoed in his mind, but their voices faded with every beat of his heart.  
  
Blood, _his _blood, covered the front of his shirt, but the bullet wound was gone.  
  
Everything in him felt wrong. Even the air in his lungs felt foreign. Every muscle fought him as if saying to lay down and let death claim him.  
  
Matthias pushed himself to his feet.  
  
Inej watched him for a moment and after she seemed convinced he wasn’t going to keel over, started down the street. He followed.  
  
The streets were empty, and the city was as quiet as a place like it could ever be. Ketterdam embodied everything he’d been taught to hate and on top of that it was also nearly impossible to navigate.  
  
In his time with the Dregs, he’d learned a bit of his way around Ketterdam, but it all looked the same to him. The buildings leaned against each other and the streets were full of sharp turns and narrow strips. None of it had any thought, any planning.  
  
“What happened?” Inej asked, glancing up at a roof before returning her attention to the street ahead.  
  
The lack of organization didn’t seem to faze Inej. She walked with her shoulders back and her gaze constantly moving, scanned shadows and alleys as they passed. They kept close to the canal.  
  
The water connected everything and everyone. Even a place like Ketterdam could agree to that.  
  
Matthias thought of the look on the young Drüskelle's face before he'd pulled the trigger.  
  
“It doesn’t matter.”  
  
“You died.”  
  
“Your friend brought me back. It no longer matters.”  
  
Inej didn’t reply.  
  
The buildings started to change the further they walked. They didn’t crowd each other as much and the chipping paint and muck that covered the buildings turned clean and bright.  
  
These new homes were for the people who wouldn’t be caught spending time in the Barrel. These were the homes of merchants and bankers. People who thought themselves better than their neighbors. What they seemed to miss was they were all Kerch. They were all guilty, but these people committed their sins with gold coins in their pockets and diamond rings on their fingers.  
  
Matthias scanned the buildings, but he didn’t know what he was looking for. Every home was the same as the one three doors down and the other twelve up.  
  
“It’s up here,” Inej said. Her quiet voice seemed to echo off the houses.  
  
Matthias replied with a small nod.  
  
The houses were all dark except for one. Inej padded over to it and started up the stairs.  
  
The words _Van Eck _was printed on the side of the house in fancy letters surrounded by a wreath.__  
  
Inej stopped and glanced down at him. “Nina didn’t know you could be brought back. Nina and Tasha don’t know each other and Kaz and I weren’t even sure Tasha could do it. We didn't know if she would. Favors do a lot in the barrel but... You were dead, Matthias. That’s why whatever happened matters. Nina has had to face your death already tonight. If we don’t know who did it, we all may have to face another. By keeping this information to yourself, you risk more than yourself. You risk the team.”  
  
Before Matthias could reply, Inej turned and walked inside.______

__

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is my first work in this fandom, so any comments are greatly appreciated!! 💕💕
> 
> I’m not sure if I’m going to continue this. I enjoyed writing it but I’m still deciding on the plot 😂 I’m probably doing this in the wrong order.  
> So this could be an open ending or I may add more chapters later. Idk but I hope you enjoyed!!


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